POOL 51

51

Amardeep Behl pg 26 | Photographed by Vibhu Galhotra Avni Sejpal 02 Dear O’ Deer 10 Ankita Shinde 14 Abhisek Basak 20 Deepa Kamath 44 Lavanya and Harpreet 52 Sanjeev Pal 60

www.indipool.com

RNI-No. MAHENG12606/13/1/2010-TC

POOL 51

Editor in Chief | sudhir@indidesign.in

September 2014 | # 51

In old Hyderabad, during a Brand history compilation research.

POOL 51

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Amardeep Behl pg 26 |

www.indipool.com

The other side of 50 Ever since we launched the Indipool.com website last month, to mark 50 issues of POOL Magazine, we have started receiving a lot more mail, work and ideas from readers. Many are reading POOL content for the first time. It feels like this new website has made POOL more accessible and more open. You can now share the stories on your social networks and comment and provide feedback on each story.

Photographed by Vibhu Galhotra

Avni Sejpal 02 Dear O’ Deer 10 Ankita Shinde 14 Abhisek Basak 20 Deepa Kamath 44 Lavanya and Harpreet 52 Sanjeev Pal 60

www.indipool.com facebook.com/poolmag twitter.com/poolmagazine info@poolmagazine.in

Designindia was founded in 2002. It was started as a platform for interaction for the design community in India and abroad. Over the years it has grown into a forum spread over many social and professional networking domains, linking design professionals into an active, interactive and thought leading community.

There is no getting away from social media today.

God knows what shape it will take tomorrow!

Designindia was an e-group, the earlier form of a community now called Design India, which has more than 20,000 members on various social networks.

Indipool.com brings POOL closer to them.

But this doesn't mean that print will go away. More and more people want a hard copy of POOL in their hands, a printed version to read and keep. So, all forms of POOL will grow; how they borrow from and lead each other is to be seen.

http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/designindia

But it sure is an exciting time to be in the POOL. :) International Design Media Network Participant

Endorsed by

Sudhir

Supported by

lifestyle Design

LIGHTING UP SPACES Avni Sejpal uses her diverse experience in fields ranging from architecture to fashion to design striking pieces of art

What ignited your passion for design?

AS: Coming from a textile based family, I had an early exposure to design and crafts. As a child, I remember visiting my father’s factory, and small artisanal workshops ranging from block printing and wood workshops to ceramic kilns, which triggered my curiosity. I also had the opportunity to attend numerous international design shows, which further impacted my perception of design.

Did you go on to pursue a design education?

AS: My childhood exposure to design led me to study architecture at Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture (KRVIA), Mumbai. Post that, I went to the Chelsea College of Art & Design, London for a Masters in Environmental Design with a focus on furniture design and public art. My time in London provided me the opportunity to focus on design with respect to public art, fashion, furniture, and graphics. This experience matured my perception of design as being seamless and interconnected.

When did you start your own design studio?

AS: After my education in London, I had the opportunity to work with Rajiv Saini (Mumbai), Paul Loebach (New York), and other designers in Belgium and the Netherlands. During these eight years I gained experience in architecture, interiors, furniture design, textiles, fashion, and graphic design. I worked on large scale lighting installations, experimental textiles, 2 POOL #50

lifestyle design 'Twister German Silver' from The faceted tactile Light Series

Concept - to create a structural module that would dictate the form. Metal sheets are first cut and then linked together or stitched together piece by piece meticulously to form a mosaic of repetitive cellular structure that results in a tessellated geometrical form. Light permeates facets where they have been linked and have stretched due to tessellations, revealing geometrical lines of construction.

With references to strong geometrical construction principles, the entire collection is handmade, borrowing from the legacy of rich Indian handicrafts. www.indipool.com  3

COVER STORY

THE BLENDER OF EXPERIENCES Amardeep Behl of Design Habit is one of India’s foremost experience designers. In his work he plumbs cultural depths to come up with stunning revelations, enabling viewers to see things from a totally different perspective. Deepa Kamath, who was a year junior to him at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, reconnects with this restless campus non-conformist, now morphed into a design ‘guru’.

Leaving the plusher parts of Delhi behind, we meander onto a bumpy mud track in Aya Nagar, where roughly constructed housing colonies unsteadily straddle freshly filled ravines. In the harsh 40ºC heat, everyone and everything is coated in dust — people, vehicles, shops, roadside eateries, bicycles.

The car turns sharply into the gate of an exposed brick structure. Amar is waiting to receive me. Tall and lanky, his untrimmed beard and long wispy hair is now streaked with white.

He leads me into the office area. High welded steel gates with a radiating pattern open into a cavernous space. “Inspired by Laurie Baker,” says Amar, “and built by architects and craftsmen who trained under him.This is our lab, to try multimedia installations, do tests, prototypes and experiments for exhibitions 26 POOL #50